American Stories
THIRD EDITION
By: Brands •
Chapter
4
Experience of Empire:
Eighteenth-Century
America
1680‒1763
Experience of Empire: Eighteenth-Century
America, 1680‒1763
4.1
Tensions in the Backcountry
What difficulties did Native Americans
face in maintaining their cultural
independence on the frontiers of English
and Spanish settlement?
4.2
The Impact of European Ideas on
American Culture
How did European ideas affect
eighteenth-century American life?
Experience of Empire: Eighteenth-Century
America, 1680‒1763
4.3
Religious Revivals in Provincial
Societies
How did the Great Awakening transform
the religious culture of colonial America?
4.4
Clash of Political Cultures
Why were eighteenth-century colonial
assemblies not fully democratic?
Experience of Empire: Eighteenth-Century
America, 1680‒1763
4.5
Century of Imperial War
Why did colonial Americans support
Great Britain's wars against France?
Video Series:
Key Topics in U.S. History
1. Great Britain’s Empire in North
America: 1713‒1763
2. Scots-Irish Migration
3. The First Great Awakening
4. Seven Years’ War
Home
Constructing an Anglo-American
Identity: The Journal of William Byrd
• Eighteenth-century backcountry
• Many cultures, independent families
• Older Atlantic settlements
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Growing populations
Many immigrants and slaves arrived
Less isolated from one another
Eighteenth-century colonists powerfully
attracted to Great Britain
Home
Tensions in the Backcountry
• Scots-Irish Flee English Oppression
• Germans Search for a Better Life
• Native Americans Stake Out a Middle
Ground
• Conquering New Spain’s Northern
Frontier
• Peoples of the Spanish Borderlands
Home
Tensions in the Backcountry
• 1700–1750 - colonial population rose
• From 250,000 to over 2 million
• Backcountry
• Inland area
• Complex society
• Spanish borderlands - multicultural
• Southwest
• California
• Florida
Tensions in the Backcountry
Tensions in the Backcountry
Scots-Irish Flee English
Oppression
• Origins of Scots-Irish
• Lowland Scottish Presbyterians transported
to northern Ireland
• Emigrated to America
• Concentrated - Pennsylvania frontier
• Welcomed by colony’s proprietors, at first
• Barrier between Indians and coastal
communities
• Quick to challenge authority
Tensions in the Backcountry
Germans Search for a Better Life
• Germans – approximately 100,000
• Early migrants - small Protestant sects,
similar to Quakers
• Later waves - Lutherans
• A third of Pennsylvania population by 1766
• Religious institutions important
• Germans and Scots-Irish push south
• Backcountry of Virginia and the Carolinas
Tensions in the Backcountry
Tensions in the Backcountry
Native Americans Stake Out a
Middle Ground
• Many eastern Indians moved
• Middle Ground - trans-Appalachian region
• Escaped confrontations with Europeans
• Relied on white traders
• Traditions eroded by European contact
• Earliest encounters controlled by Indian
leaders
• Middle ground – individual Indians
bargained for themselves
Tensions in the Backcountry
• French and British conflict
Conquering New Spain’s
Northern Frontier
• Spanish settle north of Rio Grande in
late 1500s
• Pueblo Indians resisted in New Mexico
• St. Augustine, Florida - 1565
• 1769 – missions in California
Tensions in the Backcountry
Peoples of the Spanish
Borderlands
• Slow growth in Spanish borderlands
• Mainly males: priests, soldiers, and
administrators
• Few European women
• Influence on Native American culture
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Spanish exploited native labor
Lowest social class
Natives resisted conversion to Catholicism
Retained Spanish culture
Tensions in the Backcountry
Discussion Questions
• What difficulties did Native Americans
face in maintaining their cultural
independence on the frontier?
• Why was the Spanish empire unable to
control its northern frontier?
Tensions in the Backcountry
The Impact of European Ideas on
American Culture
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American Enlightenment
Benjamin Franklin
Economic Transformation
Birth of a Consumer Society
Home
The Impact of European Ideas on
American Culture
• Rapid change in eighteenth-century
colonies
• Growth of urban cosmopolitan culture
• Aggressive participation in consumption
The Impact of European Ideas
on American Culture
American Enlightenment
• Intellectual thought swept Europe
• Basic assumptions of the Enlightenment
• American Enlightenment
• Appeal was practical knowledge
• Applied reason to social and political
problems
The Impact of European Ideas
on American Culture
Benjamin Franklin
• Franklin regarded as Enlightenment
thinker by Europeans
• Started as printer, then satirist in Boston
• Achieved wealth through printing business
• Made important scientific discoveries and
inventions
• Promoted reason
The Impact of European Ideas
on American Culture
The Impact of European Ideas
on American Culture
Economic Tranformation
• Early eighteenth-century growth
• Population increased eightfold
• Economic success
• Mercantilist restrictions expanded
• Benefited mother country
• Not enforced
The Impact of European Ideas
on American Culture
The Impact of European Ideas
on American Culture
Birth of a Consumer Society
• Consumer Revolution
• English exports to colonies increased
• Credit available
• Intercoastal trade
• Movement of goods between regions
• Great Wagon Road
• Change in American culture
• Erosion of local and regional identities
The Impact of European Ideas
• Frequent contact
on American Culture
The Impact of European Ideas
on American Culture
Discussion Question
• How did European ideas affect
eighteenth-century American life?
The Impact of European Ideas
on American Culture
Religious Revivals in Provincial
Societies
• The Great Awakening
• Evangelical Religion
Home
Religious Revivals in Provincial
Societies
• Great Awakening
• Spontaneous, evangelical revivals
• People began to rethink basic assumptions
about church and state, institutions, and
society
Religious Revivals in Provincial
Societies
The Great Awakening
• Widespread movement
• Americans looked backward with nostalgia
• Varied times in different regions
• Leaders
• Sparked by Jonathan Edwards
• George Whitefield
• Audience
• All walks of life
Religious Revivals in Provincial
Societies
Religious Revivals in Provincial
Societies
Evangelical Religion
• Itinerant Preachers
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Followed Whitefield’s example
Split established churches
Established ministers were suspicious
Gilbert Tennent
• “New Lights” formed colleges
• Cultural change
• Active, questioning role
• African Americans
Religious Revivals in Provincial
Societies
Religious Revivals in Provincial
Societies
Discussion Question
• How did the Great Awakening transform
the religious culture of colonial
America?
Religious Revivals in Provincial
Societies
Clash of Political Cultures
• Governing the Colonies: The American
Experience
• Colonial Assemblies
Home
Clash of Political Cultures
• Colonists attempted to emulate British
political institutions
• Parliament – model for American
assemblies
• Unwritten constitution; English system of
checks and balances
• Study of British political theory and
practice led to discovery of how different
Americans were from English people
Clash of Political Cultures
Governing the Colonies:
The American Experience
• Erroneous belief that American
governments modeled on England
• Royal governors
• Council
• Colonial assemblies
• Participation varied
• When big issues at stake
• Assemblies mostly gentry
Clash of Political Cultures
Colonial Assemblies
• Aggressive colonial assemblies
• Felt obligation to preserve colonial liberties
• Assemblies controlled colony’s finances
• Conflict with governors
• No incentive for cooperation
• Governors wanted patronage system
• Shaped American culture
• Weekly journal
• Law
Clash of Political Cultures
Discussion Question
• Why were the eighteenth-century
colonial assemblies not fully
democratic?
Clash of Political Cultures
Century of Imperial War
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The French Threat
King George’s War and Its Aftermath
Seven Years’ War
Perceptions of War
Home
Century of Imperial War
• Britain’s conflicts with continental rivals
like France spilled over to colonies
• Security threats from these conflicts forced
colonists into more military and political
cooperation
• British colonies overwhelmingly militarily
superior to New France but ineffective
Century of Imperial War
The French Threat
• France - limited New World military
• French army of 100,000, but not sent
abroad
• Defense left to companies in fur trade
• English colonists’ theoretical advantage
• Larger population, but divided
• English and French suspicious
• English being encircled by French
• English seizing French land
Century of Imperial War
Table 4.1 A Century of Conflict:
Major Wars, 1689‒1763
Century of Imperial War
King George’s War and Its Aftermath
• King George’s War - 1743–1748
• In Europe - War of Austrian Succession
• Victory over the French
• French built Fort Duquesne
• English population growing
• Virginia advised to expel French
• British army also unsuccessful
• Albany Plan
• Colonial unity
Century of Imperial War
Century of Imperial War
Century of Imperial War
What Did the Global Seven Years’ War
Mean for North America?
• How did other colonial claims in North
America create instability for the
thirteen British mainland colonies?
• What made this eighteenth-century war
a “world war”?
• In what ways did the territorial results
of the war impact British mainland
colonies?
Century of Imperial War
Century of Imperial War
Seven Years’ War
• 1756 – Seven Years’ War began
• England declared war on France
• European warfare – France’s advantage
• Shifted strategy to focus on North America
• Peace of Paris 1763 - France lost
• British got large piece of North America
• Spanish added Louisiana to their empire
• French kept Caribbean sugar islands
Century of Imperial War
Century of Imperial War
Century of Imperial War
Perceptions of War
• Deep impression on American society
• Colonists had to cooperate
• Closer contact with Britain
• British and Colonial views of each other
• Created trained officer corps
• British felt colonists ungrateful
• Colonists saw themselves as “junior
partners” to British
Century of Imperial War
Discussion Question
• Why did colonial Americans support
Great Britain’s wars against France?
Century of Imperial War
Conclusion: Rule Britannia?
• 1763 - most Americans bound to Great
Britain
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Culture and religion
Lifestyle
Politics and war
Identity
• British had different perception